and that’s pretty much how life is. Studio stuff, and then everything else that has to do with studio kind-of, or not really. This quarter everything is pretty much related to main studio, except for arts and society. It’s an interesting class, at the least.

I need to also start thinking about my final layout. I have an idea, some studd sketched out, but I’ll look at other precendents to get something really sophisticated down.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here’s to my first blog post–and dare I say will not be the last.

I know, I know, it’s Thanksgiving. Why am I working? Well, if you knew me the answer would be obvious. So, instead of telling you why I’m currently working right now I’ll tell you a little bit about me.

My full name is Laura Azucena Soria; I’m 19 years old and currently a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati studying Architecture in the college of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (henceforth referred to as DAAP).

I stumbled across my major at the suggestion of my dad, one of my major role models (I’m sure I’ll talk about him in some other post but to be concise, he’s nothing short of amazing. He’s accomplished so much and has worked–works–so hard to provide me with the opportunities I have and the life I live today. I don’t think I could thank him enough.). When I was younger, my dream job was to be a veterinarian. I loved animals, animals loved me (who made friends with the baby skunks in the backyard? made a little house for a lost kitty? “fed” grass to squirrels (and then subsequently freaked out by her sister when told that she got rabies…yeah, all me.), it was a happy time. Easy. Come middle school, high school, my interests switched from that to other related fields to a couple of months where I wanted to be a fashion photographer (dad wasn’t too ecstatic about that) and then… I had no idea!

Then my dad suggested architecture. Yeah, sure why not? I applied to DAAP, subsequently got accepted and thus began the whirlwind that has become my life.

Architecture, at least studying it at DAAP, is not just the perfect blend of “science and art,” it’s so much more–it’s design. Design encompasses so much, everything, honestly. I’ve always had trouble keeping a serious focus on anything long-term but this… this is completely different. I’m in love.

Architecture is probably one of the most broad, if not the most broad area of study. You have to think about so much. Designing for a specific program, designing to work with the surrounding environment, with the surrounding context (or not), designing a place for people to inhabit, to visit, the list goes on.

And I think it’s because of this whole “everything-all-at-once” environment that keeps me so engaged. To a certain point, the more there is, the better (to a certain point).

Some more random things about me:
-I’m a vegetarian/locavore/almost vegan. I (mostly) abstain from dairy because it messes with my allergies, I’ll only eat meat if it’s from a local source/humanely raised.
-I have a wide taste in music, from classical (love Chopin) to dubstep to Usher to Ratatat to Hot Chelle Rae (current obsession). And yes.. even some country.
-I like the gym. Although I’m big into running outside–although I’m not an amazing runner or anything, I (generally) like the way it feels. Workout classes are my favorite, however, and yoga is definitely one of my top choices.
-Firm believer in that dark chocolate is better than milk chocolate.. and white chocolate isn’t even a part of that discussion.
-I’m a morning person.
-And a people person.
-And I really appreciate good use of grammar and the abscence of abbreviations.

And here are some random renderings of my current project!

Autodesk Cloud Rendering = Amazing. The moment I realized that I only had 25 renderings = not as such.

This building is my design for a Clifton Literary Center, the site is a parking lot two buildings down from a Skyline Chili on Ludlow Ave. This quarter has been devoted to this project and with final critiques in less than three weeks, oh I think it’s two weeks now! 10 weeks to make one building, and a whole slew of environmental technology studies to go with (interesting, but also a whole other set of work). More on this later, I’ve got to get to bed!